Best & Worst Cities for Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions

Adam McCann, Financial Writer • Jan 6, 2020

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Adam McCann, Financial WriterJan 6, 2020

It’s easy to make New Year’s resolutions. The hard part is keeping them. But before you blame yourself entirely for your previous lack of success, consider this: Your location may be setting you up for failure.

If you live in a neighborhood with no sidewalks or fitness centers nearby, for example, you may not feel as encouraged to exercise. The same goes if most of your restaurant options are limited to fast food - you may be less likely to eat healthy on days you dine out. These might sound like excuses to the boldest resolvers, but they genuinely can get in the way of self-improvement. That’s especially true if your motivation is low to begin with.

Estimates of the resolution failure rate are as high as 80 percent and 92 percent, depending on the survey. Regardless of the actual figure, a high number of people will fail at some point in the process and break the usual resolutions, such as “lose weight,” “save more” and “reduce stress.”

To determine where Americans are most likely to stick to their goals for 2020, WalletHub considered some of the most popular (and most commonly broken) resolutions to rank more than 180 U.S. cities based on their conduciveness to self-improvement. In each city, we looked at a total of 57 key metrics, ranging from gyms per capita to income growth to employment outlook. Read on for our findings, expert advice and a full description of our methodology.

Methodology

In order to determine the best cities for keeping your New Year’s resolutions, WalletHub compared 182 cities — including the 150 most populated U.S. cities, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state — across five key dimensions: 1) Health Resolutions, 2) Financial Resolutions, 3) School & Work Resolutions, 4) Bad-Habit Resolutions and 5) Relationship Resolutions.

We evaluated those dimensions using 57 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for achieving one’s New Year’s goals. Data for metrics marked with an asterisk (*) were available only at the state level. For metrics marked with two asterisks (**), we used the square root of the population to calculate the population size in order to avoid overcompensating for minor differences across cities.

Finally, we determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample. In determining our sample, we considered only the city proper in each case, excluding cities in the surrounding metro area.

Health Resolutions – Total Points: 20

Share of Obese Adults: Double Weight (~4.00 Points)

Share of Adults Not Exercising: Full Weight (~2.00 Points)

Access to Exercise Opportunities: Full Weight (~2.00 Points)

Access to Healthy-Food Stores: Full Weight (~2.00 Points)

Inadequate Fruit & Vegetable Consumption: Full* Weight (~2.00 Points)Note: This metric measures the share of adults who eat fewer than one serving of fruit or vegetables per day.

Share of Residents Who Say They Eat Healthy: Full Weight (~2.00 Points)Note: This metric is based on Gallup and Sharecare's 2016 Community Rankings for Healthy Eating report which examines healthy eating across the nation.

Fitness Centers per Capita: Full** Weight (~2.00 Points)

Weight-Loss Centers per Capita: Full** Weight (~2.00 Points)

Average Monthly Fitness-Club Fee: Full Weight (~2.00 Points)

Financial Resolutions – Total Points: 20

Median Annual Income: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)Note: This metric was adjusted for the cost of living.

Financial-Products Comparison: Full Weight (~1.43 Points)Note: This metric measures the real intent of the population to compare “credit cards”, “mortgage rates”, “car insurance” and “car loans”. “Real intent” is measured using the average monthly search volumes for those specific terms.

School & Work Resolutions – Total Points: 20

Share of Public Schools Rated by GreatSchools.org with Above Average Score: Double Weight (~2.50 Points)

Average Quality of Universities: Full Weight (~1.25 Points)Note: This metric measures the average WalletHub College & University Score.

High School Dropout Rate: Full Weight (~1.25 Points)

Job Opportunities: Full Weight (~1.25 Points)Note: This metric was calculated as follows: Number of Job Openings per Number of Population in Labor Force – Unemployment Rate.

Median Annual Income: Full Weight (~1.25 Points)Note: This metric was adjusted for the cost of living.

Income Growth (2014–2018): Full Weight (~1.25 Points)

Unemployment Rate: Double Weight (~2.50 Points)

Underemployment Rate: Double Weight (~2.50 Points)

Job Security: Full Weight (~1.25 Points)Note: This metric was calculated as follows: (Number of Employees in 2018 – Number of Employees in 2017) / Number of Employees in 2017.

Job Satisfaction: Full Weight (~1.25 Points)

Gallup-Sharecare State of American Well-Being “Purpose” Rank: Full Weight (~1.25 Points)Note: The “Purpose” Rank is defined as “Liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals”.

Employment Outlook: Full Weight (~1.25 Points)Note: This metric is based on the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, Council for Community and Economic Research, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Wedding Report, County Health Rankings, Yelp, Numbeo, TransUnion, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, GreatSchools, Corporation for National and Community Service, National Council on Problem Gambling, Indeed, Chmura Economics & Analytics, ManpowerGroup, Google Ads, TripAdvisor, The Trust for Public Land, Gallup – Sharecare and WalletHub research.

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